Commentary
Wall Street Journal

Legacy of an African Genocide

Kagame has clung to power, knowing the world won’t protect Rwanda’s Tutsis

walter_russell_mead
walter_russell_mead
Walter Russell Mead
Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship
Walter Russell Mead
A crowd of refugees carry their belongings May 3, 1994 at the border of Rwanda and Tanzania. Hutu refugees have fled to Tanzania border across the Akagara River in order to escape reprisals by Tutsi rebels. (Scott Peterson/Liaison)
A crowd of refugees carry their belongings May 3, 1994 at the border of Rwanda and Tanzania. Hutu refugees have fled to Tanzania border across the Akagara River in order to escape reprisals by Tutsi rebels. (Scott Peterson/Liaison)

April marks the 25th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan genocide, in which almost 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were indiscriminately set upon and murdered—in their homes, in schools, in churches and in the open air. Victims were often killed by machete, sometimes by neighbors they’d known for years.

Foreign governments, including the U.S., dithered while Rwandans died. The end of the genocide came only when the Rwandan Patriotic Front, led by Paul Kagame and supported by Uganda, marched into Rwanda, defeated the genocidal government forces, and drove the remaining loyalists into the bush.

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